Washington’s Muslim electors could help make history

Lost in the unquestioned negativity surrounding false allegations that Obama is a Muslim – the persistence of the lies and the passion of the denials – is how true Muslims must feel, seeing their religion treated as political poison.

But if change must happen from the bottom up, Washington state has at least two pioneers – Lesley Ahmed and Jeff Siddiqui – poised to make American Muslims more visible on the national stage.

Siddiqui and Ahmed are state delegates for Barack Obama. If Obama carries the election, they will be among the first Muslim electors to put a president in the White House.

Siddiqui, who wrote about anti-Muslim sentiment for the P-I in March, didn’t intend to be an elector when he showed up to state party convention in Spokane, reports Greg Roberts.

“I stood up and said, ‘I want to tell you: I will use every opportunity I can as an elector to bring attention to the hate and bigotry that are being promoted in this country, and to fight against it,’ ” he said. “To my surprise, they loved it, and they said, ‘All right, you’re an elector.'”

Lesley Ahmed posted a video on YouTube during her campaign to represent Washington at the Democratic National Convention.